How blood money, diplomacy and desperation are reuniting Palestine

A decade on, Rawda al-Zaanoun is at last willing to forgive the gunmen who killed her son during the civil war that split Palestine. It has been painful, but she says it is time.”He was hit with a bullet in the back. He was a martyr,“ the 54-year-old said at an event in Gaza city to mark the public reconciliation of families of people killed in the war. ”The decision was not easy because the blood of our son is precious. But we have given amnesty.Her son Ala, a married father of two and an officer in the Palestinian Authority security forces, was killed in June 2007 after he rushed out of his house in Gaza City, having heard that his uncle was injured in clashes between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah.Since that war a decade ago, Fatah, led by the secular heirs of Yassir Arafat, has run the West Bank, headed the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority and been responsible for all negotiations with Israel.